Joe Freeman Britt (July 23, 1935 – April 6, 2016) was an American attorney and judge who developed a national reputation as a tough prosecutor, and for successfully pursuing a large number of death penalty convictions.
He was also well known by the judicial system for accusations of misconduct, including Brady violations, i.e. hiding or failing to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence from the defence, in approximately one third of his cases.
[1] Described as "towering" (he stood 6'6") and with a flamboyant courtroom presence, the Guinness Book of World Records lists Britt as the "deadliest prosecutor in America", with 47 death row convictions to his name as of 1988.
[5] In 1974 Britt was appointed district attorney for Robeson and Scotland counties by Governor James Holshouser to fill a vacancy created by the death of his predecessor, John Regan.
[citation needed] In 1978 The Guinness Book of Records dubbed Britt the world's "deadliest prosecutor" for obtaining 23 death sentences in court in 28 months.
[6] Among the cases he prosecuted were those of Leon Brown and Henry Lee McCollum, illiterate African American teenagers with very low IQs; the younger boy was only 15 years old.
The convictions were overturned after DNA evidence implicated then-convicted sex offender Roscoe Artis, who was found guilty of a similar murder he perpetrated in the same neighborhood less than a month after the Buie killing.
[15] In 1987, the North Carolina General Assembly created nine new Superior Court judgeships, including one covering Robeson County, with the goal of allowing minority candidates better odds of winning judicial office.